Re: Surgery before anesthesia

Thank you for the interesting special feature in the June issue, “You must expect to suffer: Mme d’Arblay and surgery before the advent of anesthesia,” [BCMJ 2013;55:240-242] wonderfully written by Dr Morrant.

I have given well over 50 000 anesthetics, and from my perspective the article brings into focus that we live in a luckier time. Anesthesiology has the reputation of being a narrow field (true), and a boring one (interrupted by the occasional unexpected panic attack), but much of this reputation is undeserved—we read more at work than anyone else, and the payback in personal satisfaction is a success rate second to none in medicine.

The article also reminds me that the BCMJ does not have the dullness of its national counterpart—perhaps sitting drowsily in Ottawa surrounded by 100 000 civil servants is not conducive to creativity. —George Sennewald, MDKamloops